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An anonymous reader writes "Japanese researchers unveiled yesterday a pocket-size telepresence robot called Elfoid. The device, which looks like a little ghost, transmits voice and motion over a 3G network to convey a person's 'presence' to a remote location. It's a creation of Hiroshi Ishiguro, a professor at Osaka University who is known for his lifelike teleoperated androids. The Elfoid has a limited range of motion, but its creators are planning to equip it with mini-actuators so it can imitate the movements of the person on the other end of the line. With vaguely formed features, the device is designed to be a surrogate of people of any age or gender."

I don't get it. The *entire* page is filled with people saying how creepy these things are, just like on the CHEETAH page. What's the deal? I'm not Japanese, I'm Texan, but I don't see the creepiness of it. What is it about robots that creeps people out here?

I agree! It really is creepy — and limited. It looks like the toys I had as a kid, wire-framed bendy action figures that were meant to be the Greys from "Close encounters". My mum hated them and thought they looked like mutated embryo's.

Not only that, they're too limited. I hate them. They should be focussing on the iPad & tablet market and creating super-cool avatars that beat the pants off anything Xbox has created. Isn't that far more William Gibson than having an ACTION FIGURE for crying ou

This appears to be essentially a 1:1 idea taken from future cell phones shown in macross: frontier. In there the phones made various noises, wiggled, and their "hands" where actually various phone extensions, like headphones. And they appeared to be operated by being squeezed in various way in addition to holographically projected controls.

If you go over at sankaku complex (NSFW site) they once in a while post survey results (mostly from 2chan) and the majority of it shows that most japanese girls despise otaku (nerds). Also, for some reason japanese culture thinks that moaning as if you're being raped is the standard while having sex. That might be bad or good, depends on your preferences...

Heh, I keep getting told the same thing: I want to move to Japan, and people keep telling me "Japanese girls hate Americans." I don't really care; I want to get away from this city, and from Tokyo, and this... mess. Find somewhere quiet, rolling hills, have a nice garden with a sakura tree and some flowers planted around... maybe teach English or Go, spend time in an Izakaya and at an Aikido dojo (and possibly Judo; Judo has always interested me, but it's inaccessible here), learn to cook some....

Having never been to Japan(though I'd like to pay a long visit!), I'll comment on your distinction between chess and go. My comment is thus; huh? I play both every now and then, and every thrilling aspect of Go you just described is very much present in chess mate. The strategies are just as infinite, the struggles just as plentiful. I'd say one is just as challenging and exciting as the other.

I've always found chess egregiously boring. The first time I played was when I was like 5, against my dad. The second time I was 15, against the top player in my chess club, who nearly cried because he lost. I really had no idea what I was doing, it was like here and checkmate. I always considered it a child's game, where the loser is the idiot schoolyard bully who stands up, punches the nerd in the face, and wins [wcbo.org].

Strangely, I'm having doubts about your story. Random moves from a player who doesn't know the game beating a well-practiced chess player. I wasn't there though, so I suppose I can't know whether the player in question was blindfolded and drugged.

Yeah them chess stories sound awfully fishy. Also, as someone who lived in Tokyo for a year, I gotta say there is much variation in the microcosm that is Tokyo. Its not like a vast uniform wasteland of pachinko and soap parlors =)

I've been around Hokkaido, Kyoto, Okinawa, and more. The most "Japanese" experience to my mind at least... was exploring the Izu Hanto, just a day's train ride from the bustle of Tokyo. Your mileage may vary. To bfl, I would suggest that if you do go (and you should!)... go w

I'm not that skilled in Go either; I mostly reached 10kyu because I can outread everyone below 8kyu and most people below 6kyu. That is to say, I can play 12+ moves in my head and go, "... shit, that doesn't work." A lot of brilliant tesuji and joseki I play are things I've never seen; I discover them myself because they give the best result.

Chess is the same way. I want the knight and the bishop out, keep the queen back (I'm leery of using the queen as a primary attacker; it's too powerful to lose in

A robot is autonomous; it does not simply follow someone else's movements.

E.g. Wikipedia:

A robot is a virtual or mechanical artificial agent. In practice, it is usually an electro-mechanical machine which is guided by computer or electronic programming, and is thus able to do tasks on its own. Another common characteristic is that by its appearance or movements, a robot often conveys a sense that it has intent or agency of its own.